Israel allowed a truckload of baby food to pass into Gaza today, the Israeli Foreign Ministry said, following Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's announcement that a small amount of aid would be allowed in after a two-month blockade.
"Today, Israel facilitated the entry of trucks carrying baby food into Gaza. In the coming days, Israel will facilitate the entry of dozens of aid trucks," Deden Bar-Tal, director general of the Israeli Foreign Ministry, told reporters at a press conference in Jerusalem.
A ministry spokesman, when asked how many trucks had entered, said he had to check with Kogat, the defense ministry body that oversees civilian operations in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
He added that the idea is to send a large number of trucks in the coming days.
For weeks, UN agencies and international NGOs present in Gaza have been reporting shortages of food, drinking water, fuel and medicine in the Palestinian territory, which has been at war for more than 19 months.
The Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, warned today of the growing risk of famine in the Gaza Strip, where, according to him, two million people are already starving.
Under pressure from abroad over a blockade that is starving Palestinians in Gaza, Israel announced on Sunday that it would allow limited humanitarian aid to continue, while simultaneously launching large-scale ground operations in Gaza.
The decision to allow aid into the Palestinian territory, more than two months after Israel imposed a blockade on Gaza on March 2, is "difficult but necessary," according to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
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